Colorado retirees get active in local politics
School board races attract former members of AFT classified union

People follow lots of different paths when they retire: They travel, work on their golf game, spend more time with their grandchildren or just take it easy. In Colorado, a handful of retired PSRPs have decided to get into politics after finishing up their education careers. In school board elections held in November, former members of the AFT-affiliated Colorado Classified School Employees Association (CCSEA) played a prominent role in two suburban Denver districts.

“We encourage people to run because we need friends on school boards,” says CCSEA president Wayne Scott. But to avoid possible conflicts of interest, he continues, it makes more sense for school employees to seek office after they retire.

That was the thinking of Richard Ford, whose 20-year career as a school building engineer also included a stint as president of his union chapter. Ford was appointed to fill a vacant position on the Adams 14 school board earlier in 2003, and he decided to seek election to keep the position.

“I have an insight from being a school employee,” Ford says. “It helps me when we talk about classified issues; I guess I bring a different outlook.” His union background is no secret among his fellow board members, but Ford emphasizes that what’s good for students is always his first priority.

In the nearby Brighton school district, CCSEA retiree Virginia Guzman is guaranteed a spot on the school board because she has no opposition. (Five people are running for three spots in the Adams 14 race.) Like Ford, Guzman strongly believes that helping children should be a board member’s focus. As a community liaison in the schools for 17 years, and a police officer for 12 years before that, Guzman has spent plenty of time with students who struggle in school.

“I think I’ve seen a lot of things that I can share with other school board members,” she says. “When an issue comes up, I always want to put a child’s face there. I don’t want to lose that focus.”

Yet Guzman, again like Ford, says her experience as a school support employee helps broaden the school board’s perspective on employee issues. “Sometimes I don’t think classified employees get enough recognition,” she says.

Ford says much of his union activism had to do with helping raise the status of and respect for classified employees, so he hopes that can carry over to elected office, if he wins. (The Reporter went to print before Election Day.)

CCSEA has tried to help its former members win election, although not in a heavy-handed way. Since Ford is a former activist in a contested race, he’s been the focus of efforts such as positive stories in the union newsletter. “We’re working hard for him because he’s so good,” Scott says. Two other candidates also are former CCSEA members, although not as active as Ford.

While getting good people elected to school boards is a goal in its own right, Scott points out that it also can help a statewide organization such as CCSEA. The state school boards association, for example, develops sample policies on a range of topics that most Colorado districts then adopt. If more union-friendly board members serve as state officers and on the committees that draft the policies, that can only help the union and its members in the long run.